Information about Croissant

A croissant (IPA: [kʁwa'sɑ̃] listen (helpinfo), anglicised variously as IPA: /krəˈsɑnt/, /kwɑˈsɑn/, etc.) is a buttery flaky pastry, named for its distinctive crescent shape.

Crescent-shaped breads have been made since the Middle Ages.

Croissants are made of a leavened variant of puff pastry by layering yeast dough with butter and rolling and folding a few times in succession, then rolling. Making croissants by hand requires skill and patience; a batch of croissants can take several days to complete. However, the development of factory-made, frozen, pre-formed but unbaked dough has made them into a fast food which can be freshly baked by unskilled labor. Indeed, the croissanterie was explicitly a French response to American-style fast food. This innovation, along with the croissant's versatility and distinctive shape, has made it the best-known type of French pastry in much of the world. In many parts of the United States, for example, the croissant (introduced at the fast food chains Arby's in the United States and Tim Hortons in Canada in 1983) has come to rival the long-time favorite doughnuts.

Origin

Stories of how the bread was created are modern culinary legends. It is supposed that the shape represents the Islamic crescent as found on the Ottoman flag.

While some claim that it was invented in France to celebrate the defeat of a Moorish invasion at the decisive Battle of Tours by the Franks in 732, it is more likely that it, like the bagel, was invented in 1683 to celebrate the victory of Jan III Sobieski and his Polish army over the Turkish forces in the Battle of Vienna. According to this theory bakers working at night heard the undermining tunneling operation of the Turks and gave the alarm: this version is supported by the fact that in French croissants are referred to as Viennoiserie. Other theories include tales linking croissants with the kifli and the siege of Buda in 1686, and those detailing Marie Antoinette's hankering after a Viennese specialty. According to Alan Davidson, editor of the Oxford Companion to Food, no printed recipe for the present-day croissant appears in any French recipe book before the early 20th century; the earliest French reference to a croissant he found was among the "fantasy or luxury breads" in Payen's Des substances alimentaires, 1853.

Variants

Croissant pastry can also be wrapped around almond paste or chocolate before it is baked (in the latter case, it becomes like pain au chocolat, which has a different, non-crescent, shape), or sliced to admit sweet or savoury fillings. In France, croissants are generally sold without filling and eaten without added butter, but sometimes with almond filling. In the United States, sweet fillings or toppings are common, and warm croissants may be filled with ham and cheese or feta cheese and spinach. In the Levant, croissants are sold plain or filled with chocolate, cheese, almonds, or zaatar.

References

• Alan Davidson, The Oxford Companion to Food

See also

• Baguette
• Brioche

External links

Baked goods depicting religious iconography

Croissant | Opłatek | Host | Prosphora |

• Food Timeline: croissants
• The Battle of Tours and Breakfast
• Pastry 101: croissants